The magic of jewels and charms

Jewels, gems, stones, superstitions and astrological lore are all so interwoven in history that to treat of either of them alone would mean to break the chain of association linking them one with the other. Just as the appeal to higher powers for present help in pressing emergencies preceded the development of a formal religious faith, so this never-failing need of protectors or healers eventually led to the attribution of powers of protection to the spirits of men and women who had led holy lives and about whose history legend had woven a web of pious imaginations at a time when poetic fancy reigned instead of historic record.

The writer still holds that true sentiment, the antithesis of superstitious dread, is good for all mankind—sentiment meaning optimism as truly as superstition stands for pessimism—and that even the fancies generated by sentiment are helpful to us and make us happier; and surely happiness often means health, and happiness and health combined aid to evolve that other member of the triumvirate, wealth. Do we not often wish for the union of these three supreme blessings?